The removal of dirt and debris from streets, parking lots, airport runways, factory floors, and other similar paved surfaces, through the use of various types of street cleaning vehicles or factory sweeping vehicles, as may be the case, has been known for many years. For the sake of brevity, clarity and simplicity, such vehicles will be generally referred to in this document as surface cleaning vehicles.
One type of conventional surface cleaning vehicle is known as a surface sweeping vehicle, commonly referred to as a "sweeper". In a mechanical surface sweeping vehicle, a pair of counter-rotating disc type brushes, commonly called gutter brooms, sweep dirt and debris inwardly to underneath the central area of the sweeper and an elongate cylindrically-shaped sweeping broom that rotates about a horizontal axis sweeps the dirt and debris onto a conveyor. The conveyor deposits the dirt and debris into a hopper for subsequent controlled dumping from the hopper. Such sweepers can remove large amounts of dirt and debris from a paved surface quite quickly and thoroughly, and can generally remove large pieces of debris quite readily. However, they cannot remove dirt and debris from significant depressions, cannot thoroughly clean a paved surface, cannot clean out a porous surface and cannot effectively remove fine particulate matter from a surface.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a surface cleaning vehicle that employs a mechanical debris loading means and that sweeps the surface with a sweeping broom first and then cleans small particulate matter from the surface.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a surface cleaning vehicle that employs a mechanical debris loading means and that sweeps the surface with a sweeping broom first and then cleans small particulate matter from the surface, without the use of water for dust suppression.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a surface cleaning vehicle that employs a mechanical debris loading means and that can clean depressions and cracks.